Another whirlwind Christmas

You may remember last year at Christmastime we drove to Michigan, Chicago, Tennessee, Atlanta and Augusta. This year we had more exciting plans. Our original plan was to head to Germany for I think 8 full days of travel around Munich, Berlin and Nuremberg, and skiing for a day in the Alps(!). Well everything was planned out, tickets were purchased (airline and eurail) and hostels/pensiones were booked. I ended up getting cold feet a few weeks before we were supposed to leave because there was so much in the news about terrorism around Europe and especially in Germany, with 'attacks imminent in Nov/Dec.' Sounds like a fun vacation, right? Even though many people said 'it won't happen to you,' that was SO not worth the risk for us. So, tickets were changed, returned, cancelled, etc and we ended up in Maine in the good ol' USA. Yes we lost a little bit of money, but now we even have $220 vouchers (each) on Delta to use within the next year.. not sure where we are going yet.

So, Maine. We decided to take a luxurious ski trip in Maine since we had already planned on skiing in Germany and were really excited about that part. We flew up to Portland on Sunday the 12th. First we sat on the airplane for 2.5 hours before it took off.. the irony was that it was snowing in Atlanta and the plane had to be de-iced before it took off. We finally arrived in Maine around 8pm and picked up our rental car. We had a 2.5 hour drive up to the ski resort which turned into 3 hours. We were starving because we were supposed to land at 5 and grab some dinner but we landed around 8 instead. It was POURING rain when we landed and on our whole drive.. we finally found a McDonald's (never tasted so good, haha), and also stopped at a Walmart in the middle-of-nowhere-Maine around 11pm to pick up groceries for the week. We finally got to our hotel around midnight, after a 3ish hour drive in the pouring rain.

Monday we slept in a little bit and headed downstairs for our breakfast. We had booked a package in the nice hotel at the base of the slopes with breakfasts included. The pros/cons of skiing this early in the season were that only about 20% of the mountain was open (~30 out of 150 slopes) but there were practically NO people at the place so we didn't have to wait for anything. It was awesome. No one in the rental place, no lift lines, no waiting for meals, no waiting for hot tubs, etc. First day of skiing was so-so.. still raining a tiny bit so really no one was out and we got our feet wet going down a few slopes. The second day all of the rain had turned the snow to ice and it was terrible. I skied one run and hated it and went and sat in the hot tub. Tuesday night into Wednesday they got about 3 inches of snow so the skiing on Wednesday was much better. I only skied 3 days but Matt skied Thursday morning as well.

Thursday we drove back to Portland to explore the coast for a few days. We went to Portland, Bath, Reid State Park, Kennebunkport, and many lighthouses. Maine's coast is just as beautiful as you would think and we saw many rocky shores and very cute little towns. The weather was perfect for exploring around the coast, sunny with blue skies and about 25-30 degrees with no wind (which is key to staying warm). I really loved the shopping in Portland (where we bought most of our Christmas gifts since we had planned on buying them all in Germany.. oops). They were all about 'buying local' and supporting local artists which I thought was very cool and the art and everything they were selling was fantastic and not overpriced.

After we returned from Maine, I still had another week off of work (17 days total!!). I used that time to enjoy myself at home and prepare some more for Christmas. It was fantastic :) We spent Christmas day with Matt's family at his parents' cabin in Jasper. Of course everyone knows that it snowed on Christmas day; we got 5-6 inches up there! It was so beautiful. We got up to the mountain around 11am and it had already snowed enough that the roads were closed at the top of the mountain and we had to wait to be shuttled up in a truck with chains on the tires. We were a little worried that we were going to be stuck there but the day after Christmas we were able to be shuttled back to our car (with the chains) and drive down the mountain to get home (so I could go to work on Monday).

And finally, we went to Augusta last weekend for our 'Christmas' there. We had lots of fun with my family which included staying awake until midnight for New Year's ;) haha. I wasn't sure if I would be awake or not. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Our hotel at Sugarloaf

Me with Sugarloaf village and mountain behind

Mountain, before we got a few more inches of snow

On the lift

Most of the way up the mountain, no one there! and you can't see the top or bottom!

My favorite pic I took. Reid State Park about 40 min north of Portland.. that's Matt in the pic

candlestick bowling :)

Portland Head Light - so pretty!

Snow in Jasper, GA - molly sniffing the reindeer

Moffitt cabin in Jasper

Brothers sledding - notice helmet cam + cookie sheet

the girls made cookies :)

molly getting into the winter spirit

Furniture pictures

Ah two posts in one day. Here are the promised furniture pictures. We got the chair and bench/table from my dad and I also included pictures of our front room. Last year for Christmas, Matt and I bought the other bench you see under the windows. That was the first piece of furniture for this room, and now - 1 year later we have lots! Still more to do of course but we have come a long way. The coat rack in the corner is one of our newer pieces too.

Thanksgiving

It's been over a month since my last post.. that sounds about right. I'll just post about recent happenings. Last week for Thanksgiving we kept our tradition of traveling in two different directions in the southeast.. first to Augusta and then to Tennessee. Tuesday evening I had dinner with some of my girlfriends from college - what a treat! I had a blast with them. We talked and talked until it was getting late and I headed home and Matt and I then drove to Augusta at 10pm. We got there around 12:30. I took Wednesday off of work (obviously) and we enjoyed some time with my family and going around downtown Augusta. We even got some great free furniture from my dad! (yeah.. I'll try to post a picture.. maybe tonight!). Thursday we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with my family and let me tell you, it was the best Thanksgiving meal I have ever had. We didn't really do any different foods than normal but everything was delicious!! And my sister made the most delicious pumpkin cheesecake who's crust was made with Lorna Doone cookes - yum!

Thursday evening we drove back to Atlanta and spent the night at our house before heading to Tennessee on Friday morning. We spent Friday and Saturday morning with Matt's family in Estill Springs and then on Saturday drove up to see his mother's family farm. It was neat to see but a little sad for Matt since some homes have now been built on it (it was sold years ago when his grandfather passed away). Saturday we drove back to Atlanta and enjoyed an evening of decorating for Christmas! I had so much fun with the tree. We always get a real tree and I just love it (even if it is from Home Depot).

Also in the midst of the holiday, our laptop broke :( Or.. we killed it. I won't embarrass us with the story though. But I am now blogging to you from our new itty bitty netbook. It's pretty cool.. HP Mini. Does everything we need it to do. We used our 8 year old desktop in the meantime (the computer I got to take to college with me) and I think we will get a new desktop in the next few months so that we can have CD / DVD functionality back. Thankfully the guy that tried to fix our computer will be able to get everything off of it because I had a lot backed up, but not any of the pictures I have taken since I got my new camera.

Everything else is pretty normal around here.. we stay very busy and enjoy every minute of it. We have lots of Christmas-y activities this month to look forward to. I cannot believe it is December! Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Wineries with Moffitts

More at the wineries

Love.

My sister on the tank at the park near my mom's house. I used to come here when I was little.

the deliciousness I mentioned above

my mom (right) and my aunt - sisters

sunset over the lake in estill springs, TN

old Beard family farm

nope.. it's not leaning a little ;)

i put these little birds around our tree every year.. matt's mom made them for our rehearsal dinner

Fall

Can you tell that it's Fall? We can!

See, there used to be a yard here. Pay attention to the leaves.. not the sorry excuse for bushes that will hopefully grow next year ;)

Grass peeking through..

..and it's only going to get worse!

Turning 60

A few pics I took at Matt's dad's 60th birthday party at their mountain cabin:

Checking in

It seems like a lot has been going on lately and then when I go to write a blog post, there are too many random things to write about.

First off, according to my blog, this post marks my 100th post! Exciting? Not so much.

I'll go in chronological order with everything else.. last week I joined a gym!!! I have debated over doing this for years and finally had the guts and motivation to do it. There is an LA Fitness across the highway from work so I went over there and got a free week to try it out. Ideally I would like to go twice a week and mostly I joined for the classes. Because other than the classes, I run outside and I can also use the few machines in the small (tiny) gym at work. So for my first, free, week I went to a "Body Works Plus Abs" class which left me unable to move for about 4 days, then I went to use the elliptical one evening, and then I went to a Pilates class. I loved it all! So on Friday I joined (pretty sure they took me for a little bit of money, I'm a terrible negotiator, but I'm still happy with the deal). I went last night while Matt had band practice to another round of "Body Works Plus Abs." This time with a different instructor. I liked it and stretched a TON before and after so today I feel much better! I'm good on the exercise/cardio side so I want these classes for the 'toning.' And Matt is going to hold me accountable for going twice a week :) At least I enjoy it so that will make it easier!

This weekend for the long weekend Matt and I went to Kiawah Island with Matt's brother Andy and his wife Crystal. We had a blast, even if it did take us 7 long hours to get there! I have been going to Kiawah my whole life and it's always fun to be there with all of the fun memories. I have taken a lot of friends there over the years and I just love all of the memories. We spent many, many hours on the beach and of course went to Gilligan's for dinner one night which we always do - yum! They have the BEST hushpuppies! I also started a new book and have really loved spending time reading again. An almost 400 page book and I'm almost done (quite an accomplishment for me for the past few years). I'm looking forward to finding more books that I enjoy so I'll keep reading more.

Monday night when we got home we had to move all of the furniture out of our living room because... new carpet came on Tuesday!! It's so beautiful! At least it seems so beautiful after having ugly, smelly carpet for 1.5 years. It's SO soft too compared to what we had. I will post before and after pictures soon. We finally got everything moved back in today and I just think it looks great. I've been waiting for this 1.5 years.

Can you believe there are only a few months left in this year? I can't! Halloween decorations are already in stores! Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather - get outside and take a walk, it feels great!!

The joys of homeownership

The American Dream: homeownership. I guess owning a home represents what so many people work hard their whole lives for. (Well it used to anyway.. now they will give a mortgage to anyone). But I'm not here to get on a soapbox, just to share with you some of our latest home tidbits. There is one medium-sized project that I have been looking forward to us getting taken care of in our house. When we bought the house, we knew that some framing around our back french doors was rotten and that it would need to be replaced. We also knew our carpet was worn and dirty and slightly ripped and would need to be replaced. (I did clean it twice with a steam cleaner machine, so not too dirty, but definitely want new carpet). Luckily, cost-wise, we only have carpet in one room. And as much as everyone wants hardwoods and I love our hardwoods, I also love having carpet in this one room. It feels very home-y to me and I know once we have kids I will want carpet there because that is where we spend the majority of our time and kids need carpet to fall on. Plus if we spend a fortune matching hardwood floors, I would have to pay a few hundred dollars more to buy an area rug to throw on top of them anyway.

So, first project: getting the framing fixed around the french doors. We called probably 10 people / places over the span of 2 months before we finally found someone to do the job. People wouldn't return our phone calls, estimates were too high, etc. Finally, finally we got a guy to do it who was recommended to us by one of my coworkers. He did a really great job on the whole project and then in the end left all of the scrap wood pile laying our backyard and couldn't take it away! What are we supposed to do with it?? Well I would also like to tell you the cost on these projects. People aren't always willing to share the cost of owning a home with each other, but just so you understand that it's so much more than just the mortgage (as I'm sure most of you know anyway). This particular project was $1419. About what I thought it would be.. I was guessing around $1200. So $1419 plus a pile of wood - joy.

Project # 2: now that the framing is complete, we can get new carpet! There was no point in putting it in before because they would just have to rip some of it up to get to the damaged part of the floor. I had a figure in my head for this one, one room of carpet = $800, right? Sadly, no. Well I guess we could get cheap-o carpet and pay $800 or less. We found one we really like, middle of the road carpet that we'll be putting in. I will be sure to post before and after pictures once we get it installed in the next few weeks. We chose to go with the carpet we liked but with a shorter fiber and standard pad since this is only our ~5 year house and not our 'forever' house. Cost of project: ~$1350. Yikes.

Project # 3: reupholster the steal of a couch we got on craigslist. Couch = $80. I thought.. can't cost more than $400 to reupholster, right? Man I am just a bad estimator. Apparently it's at least ~$500 for the labor and then you have to buy fabric and it's been suggested that we need new cushions for $150. This is not an urgent project but we'll probably be taking it to another recommended place in a few weeks and cross our fingers that his estimate will be a little lower. Plus before we bought the couch I thought that we would buy two matching chairs and they would be $200-$400 each so maybe the couch cost is not so far off anyway.

Though the framing project was a 'need', and I know the other two projects are 'wants', it's still expensive. But I still love our house and all of the projects we have taken on to make it our home. If you want to talk about 'needs' though, how about the thousands of dollars we had to spend water proofing our basement, replacing our air conditioning unit, having plumbers snake our drain, having electricians fix our wiring, etc etc. Thankfully we are blessed and fortunate enough to be able to afford all the projects that the house brings with it. But that doesn't mean I don't stress over it :) I think we'll stop after these 3 projects and take a little break before getting into anymore.

Hope you all are having a great weekend full of fun house projects or no house projects!